We spent two days in Copacabana with Karen. On the first day we had a slow going morning, which involved me making everyone cups of tea and coffee and us all lazing about in the room chatting over a hot drinks. We had lots to catch up on and many travelling tales to tell from our adventures. Karen's stories intrigued us as they involved Bolivia and Argentina, which we are going to explore next.

After breakfast at a small local restaurant we decided to walk to some floating islands, which were along the lake shore. We packed a lunch and set off for the short walk. Lake Titicaca was beautiful, and their was farmed land up to the lake shore, where mainly quinoa and potatoes grew. The area was quiet and serene and the walk was easy and enjoyable. We arrived at a small community, with six or so houses, stone walled fields and a pig pen attached to the side of one of the houses. We made our way down to the lake shore from the houses to see the “floating islands”; which are a must see for Lake Titicaca

. We had presumed that they would be made from reeds or be a living, organic mass which floats in the lake, but they were actually just like a patio decking floating by the lake side. They each had attached farmed trout nets and cooked them for tourists who fancied some Lake Titicaca trout. It wasn't quite what we were expecting but we had an enjoyable afternoon sitting on the floating decks, drinking a beer in the sun, looking out on to one of the most famous lakes in the world.

The second day we took a boat out to the Isla del Sol (Island of the Sun) on the lake. It was a two hour boat ride, which left Copacabana at 8.30. This meant that we had a very un-rest day early morning start to the day. As we climbed onboard, we saw the Texan couple, who we have met twice before in Peru. What a small place this is?! We chatted and caught up on each others travels as we made our way to the Island. They had driven back down to the coast and then back up through Peru to Bolivia, which is why they were progressing at the same pace as two slow moving cyclists.

We walked around the island, which had a few Incan ruins, but I felt these were dwarfed by the spectacular views across the lake and of the rock formations of the island, which took a few hours to walk across

. We enjoyed a picnic of egg, salad sandwiches and fruit, and Karen continued to be amazed by our insatiable appetites. By the time we got back to the boat at 4pm, we were all exhausted from our day of walking and exploring the island, and slept the whole way back to the shore. We were grateful to have got a nap in as we ended up having a late night. We had arranged to meet Shannon and Brenton (the Texans) in one of the popular restaurants in the town, but the service was so slow, we waited for an hour and a half for any food. Thankfully it was delicious and worth waiting for and gave us all a chance to chat easily but we were amazed that it took them so long to provide us with anything to eat.

We enjoyed our time in Copacabana and it was great to see Karen again. The only thing that seemed to spoil it was how miserable and rude the locals were. The hotel owner and all of the restaurant staff over the two days were rude, brash and treated us like they disliked us from the moment they saw us. It was very strange because the people in the street were pleasant but the service providers were horrible, and left us hoping that it wasn't a sign of things to come for our time in Bolivia. We enjoy having friendly conversations and polite interactions with the locals and I can only presume that if the locals are rude to us, it is from previous bad encounters with Gringos (westerners), which is upsetting.